TAMPA, Fla. –
Omar Figueroa scored 16 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to help Flagler College hold off Eckerd College 79-65 at the Tampa Classic Saturday evening at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center.
Flagler evened its record at 6-6 while Eckerd had its two-game winning streak halted and fell to 5-4. Flagler will take on the tournament host, the University of Tampa, at 7 p.m. tomorrow.
"I am really excited for our guys tonight," said head coach
Blake Selland. "It was great to see multiple guys step up and make winning plays. We talked about playing together and that's what we did tonight."
After falling behind early, the Saints used a 13-2 run to take a 27-15 lead as five different players scored in the spurt. Flagler went into the half with a 31-22 lead.
The Saints maintained a double-digit lead for the majority of the second half, but the Tritons pulled to within four (63-59) after a pair of free throws by Carr Thiam. The Saints closed the game on a 16-6 run. In the final six-plus minutes, Eckerd made 2-of-10 from the field and the Tritons missed all seven of their three-point attempts. Figueroa made all three of his shots as the Saints made 5 of their 9 attempts.
Figueroa finished the game 7-for-11 from the field, was 4-for-7 from three-point range and he sank all six free throw attempts.
Kyle Young recorded his team-leading sixth double-double with 20 points and had a season-best 14 rebounds. He added five assists and three blocked shots to his line.
Tyler Collier added 10 points and four rebounds for the Saints.
Daniel Love led Eckerd with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists before he fouled out with 1:26 left to go in the game. Thaim finished with 15 points and seven rebounds while Dante Bouchard made 11 of 13 free throws to account for all of his points.
The Tritons made 25-of-their-30 free throw attempts – an 83.3 shooting percentage. Conversely, they only made 2-of-23 from behind the arc and only shot 28.8 percent (19-66) from the field in the game.
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